How to remain completely anonymous online
Most Internet users give little thought as to what information they may be leaving behind each time they visit a web page or leave a post on Facebook. The amount of your private information given out to web sites and social media platforms may shock you.
A recent Stanford University study found that not only do most of the popular websites and social media networks harvest your personal information, but they then allow your information to be leaked via your web browser.
Many browsers come with a private browsing feature, but this feature is not enough to keep your anonymity online.
Private browsing will hide the following information for you:
Visited pages: No pages will be added to the list of sites in the History menu or the Library window’s History list.
Form and Search Bar entries: Nothing you enter into text boxes on websites or the Search bar will be saved.
Passwords: No passwords will be automatically filled in during Private Browsing and no new passwords will be saved.
Cookies: A cookie is a bit of information stored on your computer by a website you’ve visited. Usually this is something like your site preferences or login status. Any cookies that are stored will be deleted when you turn off Private Browsing.
Cache: The cache stores temporary files such as web pages, images and other online media (for example, PDF and other files that automatically open in other programs). All of the items that get added to the cache will be deleted when you turn off Private Browsing.
Why this is not enough:
Your I.P. (Internet Protocol) address is still visible and traceable despite taking the above precautions. This will still broadcast exactly where and who you are. To remain completely anonymous you need to use a tool like Tor.
Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.
The only thing that Tor will make visible is your operating system, browser name and version, and nothing more. You will now be completely anonymous and untraceable online.
Other tools to protect your identity online:
DoNotTrack.us
NetworkAdvertising Initiative
Digital Advertising Alliance